00:00Armenia still relies heavily on Russian gas, for example.
00:04So isn't this move extremely risky and could Russia retaliate in any way?
00:10Well, Russia has been retaliating since 2022 with respect to governments that displease them,
00:20as President Trump has done the same thing with countries that have displeased him.
00:26Armenia is in a delicate position because of the distance between what Russia is charging Armenia for energy.
00:37It's basically like a six to one.
00:39So they're paying roughly one-fifth to one-sixth of global market prices for oil and natural gas coming from
00:48Russia.
00:48So it's a big number.
00:50But as Russia has somewhat found out with Azerbaijan, you can only push these former republics of the USSR so
01:03far.
01:03And what Russia has been counting on is the fact that they can muscle these former republics and they'll back
01:13down.
01:13The change has been President Trump, who is re-engaging with those republics, and the European Union, which is engaging
01:24with those republics.
01:25So now, even though there's going to be some pain, they can look to a much brighter future.
01:32I mean, it's basically, who do you want to align yourself with?
01:36North, where it's all about muscularity, and it's about being threatened.
01:41Or East and West, where you have what others want, they have what you want, and they're looking much more
01:50longer term to the benefit of your people.
01:54And so for President Putin, he's playing, to use President Trump's, he doesn't have the cards.
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